Forging Antiquity

The website for the Australian Research Council Discovery Project: Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri

Mark Matic

Mark Matic is studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Ancient
Languages at Macquarie University, having previously completed a Bachelor of
International Studies and Master of Arts in Ancient History. He is currently
working as a PACE intern on the ARC Discovery Project, Forging Antiquity:
Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri. He is principally interested in the
experiences of refugees and their hosting communities during the Peloponnesian
wars and how these narratives might better inform contemporary discourses on migration,
asylum and social integration.

In light of the ongoing wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia
and Darfur and the challenges in accommodating the tens of millions displaced,
his research seeks to elucidate the perils which drove people from their homelands
(e.g. Messene, Aegina and Plataea) and the expectations and procedures of the
Athenians and Spartans in sheltering them. This second set of interests demands
consideration not only of the strategic agendas of the leading belligerents but
of the socio-religious concepts of hiketeia (supplication) and xenia (hospitality)
which are also likely to have informed the treatment of refugees.
He is also examining the new status of refugees and the ways in which civic identity
was expressed after integration or relocation. He hopes this research will help
to foster greater awareness of the experiences of refugees both in antiquity
and today and consequently encourage more informed and compassionate responses
from governments and local communities.